Duval air quality improves slightly

Wednesday

Apr 28, 2010 at 10:35 AM

Duval County's air pollution gets bad marks with a silver lining in an American Lung Association report card that says things are getting just a little better.

After giving the county twin F's last year for pollution by ozone and short-term buildups of tiny particles of airborne debris, a report released today raises the particle grade to a D. The F for ozone stayed the same.

Stronger federal rules governing new truck engines, diesel exhaust and power plant emissions mean a lot of cities now have lower levels of fine, gritty particles, the people in charge of the rankings said.

"We did see good improvement in much of the country. ... These are some good reasons to cheer," said Janice Nolen, the Lung Association's assistant vice president.

High ozone or particle levels can cause breathing problems for people with asthma, bronchitis, emphysema and heart disease, the report said. Those problems are more likely for youths and senior citizens, which together number more than 300,000 people in Duval County.

Baker County, the only other Northeast Florida county listed, got a B for ozone, the same as last year. It was not graded for particulate levels because of a lack of data.

Both counties got passing grades on a pass/fail standard that measured average particle levels over long periods.

Several Florida counties scored better than last year in the report, which quoted air measurements taken by state and local agencies between 2006 and 2008.

Of 17 counties rated by three standards, Duval had the lowest overall marks.

But state environmental officials warned against reading too much into any of the conclusions, saying the report card exaggerates problems in some places.

"Florida's air is among the cleanest in the nation," the Department of Environmental Protection's interim press secretary, Amy Graham, said in e-mailed comments.

She said that the report "makes air quality seem worse than it actually is" by focusing on a relatively small number of days when a community exceeds air standards, rather than on average conditions.

The Lung Association's "State of the Air 2010" report says most Americans live in counties where ozone or particle pollution are too high too many days of the year.

Both sides agreed air quality is likely to improve over the next few years because of rules that have made coal-fired power plants run cleaner and cut down on traffic-related pollution.

In Northeast Florida, clean-air advocates are also getting more support from governments and civic groups, said Courtney Weatherby, program manager for the Lung Association's Jacksonville office.

She pointed to air-quality research by the Jacksonville Community Council Inc. and work by the Clean Cities Coalition, a public-private organization that encourages owners of vehicle fleets to use more hybrids or cleaner alternative fuels.

The coalition just started holding monthly meetings last year and is building contacts with local governments and businesses, said Marci Larson, a spokeswoman for the North Florida Transportation Planning Organization, a parent group for the coalition.

steve.patterson@jacksonville.com,

(904) 359-4263

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